Daft Punk
Tron: Legacy
Release Date: Dec 7, 2010
Genre(s): Electronic, House, Electronica, Pop/Rock, Club/Dance, Soundtracks, Stage & Screen, Left-Field House, Progressive House
Record label: Disney / Walt Disney
Music Critic Score
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Album Review: Tron: Legacy by Daft Punk
Very Good, Based on 11 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
I’ve been thinking: are Daft Punk the most universally adored dance act of the modern age? Whereas peers like The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers are more than happy to play anywhere with a big enough field and accessible glowstick warehouse, there has always been something ephemeral about Daft Punk that set them apart from the herd. The legend, the myth, the robot personas, the ability to reach across the divided tribes to make rock fans, indie kids, dance heads and casuals salivate at the very mention of their name. In keeping a fleeting sense of unattainability, they have maintained their aura in a world where dance acts sprout and die in the span of a season.
Based on rating 8/10
"The Game Has Changed" is the name of one of the tracks on Daft Punk's score to Tron: Legacy, and it also fits Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's music for the film. When it was announced that the duo would score the sequel to one of sci-fi's most visionary movies, it seemed like the perfect fit: Their sleek, neon-tipped, playful aesthetic springs from their love of late-'70s and early-'80s pop culture artifacts like Tron. However, Tron: Legacy takes a much darker, more serious approach than the original film and Daft Punk follows suit, delivering soaring and ominous pieces that sound more like modern classical music than any laser tag-meets-roller disco fantasies fans may have had.
Based on rating 8/10
Daft Punk’s robot shtick has multiple benefits. By wearing futuristic helmets that obscure their faces during nearly all public appearances, band members Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo enjoy anonymity. As much as the duo has become known for innovative dance music, the degree to which they have controlled their identities allows them the flexibility to exercise various personae at will.
Based on rating 4/5
There are some pieces of casting so perfect that if you were to believe in destiny, you would say that somebody’s life had been inexorably leading up to that moment and that moment alone. [b]Johnny Depp[/b] as Captain Jack Sparrow. [b]Barbara Windsor[/b] as Peggy Mitchell. [b]Wagner[/b] as the UK’s unlikely Saturday night folk hero.
Based on rating B
This is a film score, not a Daft Punk album. Perhaps that sounds like an obvious disclaimer, but it?s important to bear in mind for anyone expecting the irresistible grooves and playful loops found on the French house duo?s proper releases. Instead on TRON: Legacy, they lead an orchestra through incidental cues that must sound awfully dramatic inside a multiplex.
Based on rating 3/5
Last summer, Daft Punk's soundtrack to Tron: Legacy leaked on the internet. You would think that Daft Punk fans might exercise caution when it comes to internet leaks after that unfortunate business with their last studio album, 2005's Human After All. When tracks purporting to be from the follow-up to the multimillion-selling Discovery emerged online, a lot of devotees rushed to announce that they were very obviously faked, that two zeitgeist-defining musical geniuses such as Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo couldn't possibly be responsible for anything so shoddy and uninspired.
Based on rating C+
The challenge with reviewing the Tron: Legacy Soundtrack is whether or not to call it a true Daft Punk album. Sure, it’s a full album’s worth of Daft Punk music. However, the key word in the title is “soundtrack”. This highly anticipated release–researched, leaked, and teased all over the internet—is, in the end, a film score.
Based on rating 5.5/10
This is not the new Daft Punk album. It's a score for a Disney franchise film that cost an estimated $200 million to make. As such, there are lots of classical-inspired strings and horns played by an 85-strong orchestra. Most of the soundtrack's 22 pieces don't last more than three minutes; only a few could be considered actual songs.
Based on rating 2.5/5
Are those sleek Light Cycles equipped to run on fumes? Because the two robots that were once known as Daft Punk sure are, having now officially capped an entire decade's worth of coasting off Discovery's still potent hot-pink cheese. The announcement that the French house duo would be filling the role Wendy Carlos did back in 1982 and scoring a new installment of what Disney clearly hopes can be resurrected into a series of TRON 3D experiences was met with blithering anticipation. The choice turned what would've arguably been accepted as a desperate wild-pitch attempt to boot up a new franchise into one of the most hipster-anticipated blockbusters in recent memory.
Opinion: Excellent
The Fresh And Onlys must be Johnny Cash fans. The best track on the band’s third album, “Until The End Of Time,” borrows heavily from the Man In Black’s trademark country twang, yet it presents it through the lens of lo-fi indie pop. The result is a song (and an album) that feels Southern ….
Opinion: Very Good
A sophisticated integration of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Colin Buttimer 2010 The futuristic and mysterious dance masters Daft Punk appear to be the perfect group to compose the soundtrack to Tron: Legacy. The original film is fondly remembered by many despite its failure at the box office. Its musical score was composed by legendary composer Wendy Carlos, responsible for synthesizer classics such as Switched-On Bach and the soundtracks to A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.